FAA's Answer to ATC Retirement Bubble Staffing Shortfall

Isn't a policy that reduces staffing, and then authorizes mandatory
overtime (with its federally mandated time-and-a-half pay rate) just a
bit irrational?



UNION: FAA "STAFFING TO BUDGET"

The FAA seems intent on challenging long-established norms in
terms of staffing levels, work hours and overtime management in
many of its facilities as it copes with the "retirement bubble" of
controllers hired in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan fired
thousands of striking controllers. According to the National Air
Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the agency recently began
ordering controllers to stay at their consoles beyond the two
hours that the unions says is the "longest possible period that
controllers should ever work to ensure safety and allow them
adequate rest periods." In a news release, NATCA says the agency
is also instituting mandatory overtime to maintain minimum
staffing at facilities and, even though traffic is
increasing, recently reduced the minimum staffing levels at
hundreds of facilities by as much as 26 percent. NATCA claims the
reductions are reducing safety margins and increasing controller
fatigue. The FAA did not respond to AVweb's request for comment.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#195236